Social Media Creators Challenge Private Equity With Satire

Social media creators are drawing millions of views by using comedy and criticism to examine how private equity firms influence everyday businesses in the United States. Through videos on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, creators are highlighting rising costs, corporate takeovers, and changes affecting consumers, workers, and independent businesses.

Private equity firms have expanded into industries ranging from funeral homes and family dental practices to veterinary care, restaurants, and youth sports. The industry has also attracted scrutiny following financial difficulties at familiar retail chains, including JoAnn Fabrics and Toys “R” Us, after private equity acquisitions.

Johnny Hilbrant Partridge, a former fitness instructor, developed a satirical character called “The PE Guy” after repeatedly encountering finance professionals who boasted about expensive lifestyles, exclusive memberships, and private schooling at weddings.

Partridge uses a facial filter and a puffer vest to portray an exaggerated private equity professional. His videos have attracted audiences beyond social media, and he has received invitations to speak at insurance and private equity conferences and company annual meetings as comic relief.

In one video, Partridge mocked the economics of youth sports after lawmakers introduced a bill this year to prohibit private equity investment in that sector.

“All we did is acquire some youth hockey complexes, implement dynamic pricing and put some people on recurring revenue subscription models,” Partridge said. “This country used to reward innovation, and suddenly it’s wrong to charge $11,000 for a development lacrosse weekend … give me a break.”

Partridge said his criticism focuses on how investment strategies can reshape essential services and familiar businesses, rather than suggesting every company or investor behaves badly.

He described the public response by saying that “people are feeling the real impacts from it”.

Hojung Kim, co-founder of an affordable LSAT preparation business, has also used social media to explain private equity's influence on consumer-facing industries. An Instagram post Kim published in August about changes in veterinary care attracted one million views in two days.

Kim said the term private equity has acquired a broader public meaning beyond its technical financial definition.

“When people say private equity, they don’t just mean the exact technical term,” Kim said.

Kim described the practices that many viewers associate with the industry as “leveraged buyouts, hard cost-cutting in order to ruthlessly profit maximize and saddling the business with debt in order to self-enrich”.

Following the response to the veterinary care post, Kim launched a series examining other industries affected by private equity and developed Grass, an app designed to help users find independent American businesses.

“We hit a nerve. A lot of people were being affected by this rampant rise in costs and wanted to know what was behind it,” Kim said.

Kim added that “As it happens, private equity has changed a lot of industry landscapes.”

Corporate influence on social media extends beyond criticism. An advertising trade group estimated that companies collectively spent $37 billion on influencer marketing in 2025. Private equity firms have also acquired businesses providing tools for creators, including Uscreen.

Journalist Pablo Torre and comedian Stavros Halkias have contributed to the criticism through a YouTube video examining private equity's role in sports and the acquisition of Jersey Mike's Subs by Blackstone. Their discussion has attracted hundreds of thousands of views.

Halkias connected the financial ownership of professional sports teams with broader concerns about economic inequality while discussing the Los Angeles basketball team, which Bob Iger and Josh Kushner acquired for $12.5 billion in August.

“If they fucking destroy the Lakers, guys with Kobe [Bryant] back tattoos are going to start the proletariat revolution,” Halkias said.

He also argued that consumer-facing businesses and sports can make economic inequality more tangible to the public.

“The closest we’re getting to class consciousness is fast food and sports teams,” Halkias said.

Natalka Burian, owner of Elsa, a bar in Brooklyn, has documented private equity's growing presence in restaurants and bakeries. She said investment-backed operators can afford unusually high rents and secure prime locations, putting independent establishments under pressure.

Burian argued that the financial resources flowing toward larger operators could instead support neighborhood businesses.

“That’s money that should be going to local businesses,” Burian said.

She also raised concerns about the effect of increasingly standardized businesses on local communities.

“I think there’s something about this blandness that takes away from our communities,” Burian said.